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Oricon revealed the list of top-selling manga in 2024, in whichJujutsu Kaisenfeatures as the best-selling manga series this year, followed byOne Piece. This is not the first timeJujutsu Kaisenis in the first position on the yearly chart, as the series has already done it in 2021 and 2022.
Last year,Blue Locktopped the ranking, andJujutsu Kaisenwas in second place, followed byOne Piece. It is important to note that the Oricon chart is about printed sales, not including digital ones. This information is important to understand the numbers.
The best-selling manga in 2024
According to Oricon,Jujutsu Kaisensold 7,610,995 copies, andOne Piecesold 5,250,210. Other series included in the top 5 areFrieren, The Apothecary DiariesandBlue Lock.Haikyu!!is in 8th position, an impressive mark for a series that ended in 2020 (butthe movie probably affected sales positively).
From 2008 to 2018,One Piecetopped the top every year. In 2019,Demon Slayerbroke the “combo” and was the best-selling manga series of that year. Since then,One Piecehas never topped the chart again, but has always been featured in the top 5. This all indicates changes in consumption patterns among manga readers, indicating more diversity and competition among series. Up until 2018, one established series dominated sales, but now different and new series are topping the charts.
But the numbers have been weird. In 2019,One Piecewas second place, selling 10,134,232 copies. In 2020, it was third place, selling over 7,000 copies (Demon Slayerwas first withan unmatchable 82,345,447 copies soldandKingdomsold over 8,000 copies). In 2021,Jujutsu Kaisen,Demon SlayerandTokyo Revengersall sold over 20,000 copies each (Attack on TitanandOne Piecesold over 7,000 copies each). In 2022, all the top 4 series (includingOne Piece) sold over 10,000 copies.Last year,Blue Locksold over 10,000, followed byJujutsu Kaisen(over 8,000,000) andOne Piece(over 7,000,000).
What this all points to is that from 2020 to 2022, manga consumption reached a peak, maybe affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and now numbers seem to be dropping to a pattern similar to the numbers we’ve seen from 2013 to 2018. This could have many causes: eventual loss of interest from the public, diffusion of readers (the manga market has more readers, but they are reading different things, so sales are not too centered on any specific series) and maybe a change in consumption format. Oricon manga charts are based on printed sales, so if readers are buying or reading digitally, Oricon cannot assess these numbers.
What is the Oricon chart?
The Oricon chart is an estimate of manga sales based on information Oricon gathers from bookstores and other shops. Thus, Oricon charts do not necessarily reflect the whole reality of Japanese sales, but they are a good source to understand the market. For this reason, their numbers can differ from official publishers' numbers — however, publishers are generally worried about copies in circulation (which are the copies the publisher sells to stores, so this is usually the transaction in which publishers make money), while Oricon tries to estimate actual sales to final consumers.
Oricon charts are estimates based on information gathered from bookstores and other shops, they are not based on official numbers shared by publishers.
